Category: Piece of the Week

-JJ, San Diego  “A broken immigration system means broken families and broken lives.” -Jose Antonio Vargas  Yes, a broken immigration system does break families. If a woman’s husband is deported and they have children, she often has to work and cannot take care of her kids because she relies on her husband to provide for the family.  The immigration system fails to recognize that many of these families are hardworking and just trying to live right. They allow people with criminal backgrounds in but don’t give hardworking individuals a second chance. They also don’t seem to acknowledge that Hispanics work

-JSM, Sonoma  What I would tell my younger self is to enjoy school, be involved in the community, and to be yourself. I would tell myself to not be scared to choose a path in life as long as it’s a good, successful path. Go on forward, and don’t be scared to face your fears and challenges.  One last thing I would tell my younger self is to make wise choices, and don’t be afraid to ask for help or take another step forward to better yourself in any way. Don’t be scared to spread your wings. 

-A, San Francisco One thing that makes me feel good about helping is when I help my friends while we are locked up. If I’m able to get something from the staff, I’m doing what I’m supposed to do. I like to give something to my friends.  Even if I’m not very close with someone, I still like to share what I got because at the end of the day, even though some people are going through more than others, we are all in a similar situation while we are locked up. Everyone is going through something. Whether it’s some

-JR, Albuquerque How my life changed after coming to JDC was it all happened so quickly, like in a blink of an eye. The day when everything happened, that’s when I started fighting for my freedom.  The first few months here were stressful, overthinking my situation. The food in here is horrible. I’m barely getting used to it till this day. After one year still here, I am waiting to go home to have freedom and to spend time with my family. I will never give up to get a second chance in life. Day by day, I try to

-Z, Sacramento “Those who are successful overcome their fear and take action. Those who don’t, submit to their fears and live in regret.” -Jay Z  The most important part of being scared is to overcome your fears. One day you could simply stop being scared of something or realize that fear is part of you. It is very important to overcome your fears because if not, you continue being enslaved by that fear. It doesn’t let you act fully; it handcuffs you at the most unsuitable moments of your life. 

-Christina, San Francisco Something I changed a lot about myself is my actions and accountability. Also known as following a program turned my life to God, and preparing for the worst but preparing for the best. Another thing I changed is going to school more, got back on my feet learned to write, draw. Even throw my past life away which was the biggest challenge I had to overcome.  Started to eat little more, a lot of fruit and actually gave food a shot. Engaging programs. The people I thought were my friends aren’t my friends. A challenge was to

-DZ, Albuquerque Most of the time I focus on others rather than myself. My need to fix other people’s problems and struggles is the burden that I carry. Even before I got locked up, I had to be the person to solve problems and the person everyone could count on. That made me neglect all of my problems and eventually I got hurt.  I am an extremely caring and loving person, but I have learned that I can’t help anyone until I help myself first. I have finally decided it is time for me to put the love, energy and

-L, Sacramento When I was like ten, my whole family took a surprise trip to my family’s home town in Mississippi. My dad never told me or my little brother about the trip, we just woke up early one morning and we went to my auntie’s house.  Then, we got in a big van with the rest of my family and we started a long drive to my uncle’s house to pick up family, and even then my dad still didn’t tell us where we were going until we got to my uncle’s house.  After the long three hour and

-Spaz, San Francisco The joy in my life is that you guys come every Monday and we write about different topics so that we can express ourselves. It helps me express myself and I can show my ideas to other counties and places. Maybe somebody reading will like my writing and sponsor me.  I like to read the magazine when it comes. I like to see who has Pieces of the Week. I like to see when my pieces are in the magazine, they are usually in the front. I just try my best every week so I can get

-Zion, San Mateo An important issue in the world is homelessness. Many people in Cali face this problem due to being unable to get accepted by jobs or having family issues as little kids, and not having the resources to help them survive.  You can see more than five hundred people downtown in the city on crack, meth, pills, and other stuff toxic to the body. Even myself and my grandma faced being homeless many times due to her health issues, which stopped her from working and me being unable to provide for her because the jobs I would apply